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The sister of a mentally ill man shot dead by police bowed her head and stared at her lap at a coroner’s inquest Monday as a frantic 911 call she made just before his death was played.

Reyal Jardine-Douglas, 25, was shot on Aug. 29, 2010, after two officers cornered him on a bus and he pulled a knife. His sister, Aisha Jardine-Douglas, had called police in the hope they would take him to hospital for a mental health assessment.

She told the 911 dispatcher that her brother was pacing in circles outside a car dealership on Victoria Park Ave. He was demanding his mother get into her car with him, believing someone was after them.

“I don’t know who to call,” she said, her voice sounding rushed and shaky. “My brother’s a little bit mentally disturbed right now, and he’s kind of threatening my mom.”

The inquest is examining the deaths of Jardine-Douglas, Sylvia Klibingaitis and Michael Eligon, who all had mental health issues and carried sharp weapons when shot by Toronto police.

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Jardine-Douglas’s mother testified that her son had been a star student and basketball team captain until he began to withdraw from the outside world. He quit school in Grade 10 and eventually stopped leaving the house.

“I don’t know what he was afraid of. He was just in the house all the time. He didn’t speak to anyone — he didn’t have any friends,” said Juliet Jardine.

Jardine-Douglas had refused to see a doctor for years, until Aug. 27, 2010. Then a physician recommended a psychiatric assessment, telling he also told Aisha that if things got worse, she could call the police to apprehend him under the Mental Heath Act and take him to hospital, she testified.

The next day, his mother took him to Scarborough Hospital, but he fled, believing he was being chased. Hospital staff recommended his mother instead take him to Ajax Pickering Hospital, which was closer to where the family lived.

Reyal Jardine-Douglas disappeared with his mother’s car and did not return home until after midnight on Aug. 29. Increasingly worried, she and Aisha decided to take him to hospital, but they first drove him to find her car.

He directed them to the dealership on Victoria Park Ave but once there, he began to pace back and forth and tell his mother to get in the car. “It’s not safe, we have to get out of here,” he kept repeating.

Aisha took the keys and called 911. About nine minutes into the call, he boarded a TTC bus going south on Victoria Park Ave. Aisha later testified she tried to stop him from boarding, but he paid his fare and got on the bus.

Police were initially dispatched to the wrong location, but about 19 minutes into the call, a police car sped by Aisha with its sirens blaring. Sounding more relaxed at that point, she said she didn’t think that car was for her brother.

“I don’t know if he’s giving him problems down there,” she said. “Do you know if they saw him yet?”

The dispatcher replied that officers were investigating. Sounding more worried, Aisha asked whether officers would apprehend him, but the dispatcher said she didn’t know.

As Aisha ended the call, she sounded relieved to see police pull up next to her and her mother. She calmly thanked the dispatcher for her help and hung up.

Jardine-Douglas’s shooting has been pieced together by security video and witness testimony. Police cars forced the bus to pull over and two officers boarded the bus, one from the front door, one from the back. Jardine-Douglas pulled a knife from his backpack and advanced toward the officer at the front of the vehicle, who backed off the bus and Jardine-Douglas followed.

According to witnesses, the officer fired two or three shots, one of which hit Jardine-Douglas, sending him to the ground. As he tried to get up, the officer fired one final shot. That time, he did not get up.

Officers took Juliet and Aisha to Sunnybrook Hospital, where Jardine-Douglas was pronounced dead. Juliet recalled exclaiming, You killed my son?”

Mother and sister testified that police did little to comfort them then, in the immediate aftermath, adding they were offered neither counselling nor a full explanation of why he was shot.

“It would have been nice if someone . . . at least came and apologized for killing my son,” said Juliet.

The mother questioned whether the officer had done enough to calm her son down before opening fire.

“I’m thinking that the police officer knew based on the 911 call that my son . . . was suffering from whatever illness he had,” she said. “Maybe talk to him, or do something to calm him down, prior to killing him.”

The inquest has heard that when someone is advancing with a sharp weapon, officers do not consider their mental state. They are taught to yell a command like “Drop the knife!” and pull their gun.

The province’s Special Investigations Unit cleared the officer in Jardine-Douglas’s death of any wrongdoing, as well as the officers in the other two cases.

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